Page 493 - vanity-fair

The Duke of Wellington was retreating upon the capital,
and a great battle must be fought under its walls probably,
of which the chances were more than doubtful. The Duke
of Wellington had but twenty thousand British troops on
whom he could rely, for the Germans were raw militia, the
Belgians disaffected, and with this handful his Grace had
to resist a hundred and fifty thousand men that had broken
into Belgium under Napoleon. Under Napoleon! What war-
rior was there, however famous and skilful, that could fight
at odds with him?
Jos thought of all these things, and trembled. So did all
the rest of Brussels—where people felt that the fight of the
day before was but the prelude to the greater combat which
was imminent. One of the armies opposed to the Emper-
or was scattered to the winds already. The few English that
could be brought to resist him would perish at their posts,
and the conqueror would pass over their bodies into the
city. Woe be to those whom he found there! Addresses were
prepared, public functionaries assembled and debated se-
cretly, apartments were got ready, and tricoloured banners
and triumphal emblems manufactured, to welcome the ar-
rival of His Majesty the Emperor and King.
The emigration still continued, and wherever families
could find means of departure, they fled. When Jos, on the
afternoon of the 17th of June, went to Rebecca’s hotel, he
found that the great Bareacres’ carriage had at length rolled
away from the portecochere. The Earl had procured a pair
of horses somehow, in spite of Mrs. Crawley, and was rolling
on the road to Ghent. Louis the Desired was getting ready

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